Private Proust: Letters and Drawings to Reynaldo Hahn was produced by François Proulx, Lecturer on Comparative Literature at Harvard University and guest curator at Houghton Library. This online exhibition was originally a component of the Proust and the Arts web site, which served as a resource both for students enrolled in "French 165: Marcel Proust" and for guests and attendees of the interdisciplinary conference held at Harvard University April 19-20, 2013.

2. Drawings (1902-1906)

Proust traveled to Belgium and to the Netherlands in October 1902, primarily to view paintings. In this illustrated letter to Hahn, Proust depicts the church and harbor in Dordrecht; years later, in Swann’s Way, he would describe the young narrator’s ardent wish to view a church next to the sea.

On the back of the letter, a poem accompanies the drawing: “Dordrecht, a place so pretty Cemetery Of illusions I treasure When I attempt to draw Your canals, your roofs, your spire […]”